Due to the high demand for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in Nigeria, communities are seeing price increases which push these items out of reach for many. Crucially, frontline workers (such as the health workers) reported challenges in accessing the face masks and gloves which allow them to safely assist people during the epidemic.
To help address this issue, in July 2020, ACTED began collaborating with local tailors in Maiduguri to produce thousands of reusable face masks to be distributed to frontline workers during the COVID-19 Outbreak in Borno State in Nigeria.
Training on facial masks production at Goni Kachallari/Ngirmeri Farm Center
Using local resources and labour to improve health conditions in Nigeria
ACTED supported the tailors by providing them with the material needed for mask production and maintenance (proper cleaning to ensure safe reuse).
Beyond the direct impact of this initiative to prevent the population from the Covid-19, it also greatly benefits the local tailors and will have a sustainable impact.
“It helps me a lot regarding the safety of my family, I trained my family on how to produce and use face masks, while initially, I did not even know how to make them,” said David, one of the tailors involved in the project.
This intervention had a “snowball effect,” allowing tailors to access to a new income generating activity through the production of reusable masks, which also enabled frontline workers to improve their access to PPE and therefore slowed the spread of the pandemic.
Face-mask production begins in Gwange
ACTED distributed masks to the following actors:
- Health workers in hospitals, clinics and maternity centers.
- Borno State environmental workers and the state committee on COVID-19, including the doctors and nurses that are manning COVID-19 in isolation centers.
- Community leaders (IDP leaders, youth leaders, religion leaders, minority group, minority tribe etc. in the clusters of Gwange, Sulemanti and Goni kachallari/ Ngirmeri.
- ACTED and REACH teams operating in the field.
- Stakeholders in city collaboration forums
As highlighted by a member of the Borno State Environmental Protection Agency, this initiative was appreciated and welcomed by all, “this is the first in-kind assistance from any registered organization within the State. These items will go a long way for health workers within the community.”
Face mask production in Sulemanti
The Consortium composed of ACTED, IRC and IMPACT is implementing in Nigeria the project entitled “Response to Resilience (R2R)” funded by the European Commission Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO). As part of this project, ACTED helps to reduce the spread of Covid-19 through the production of face masks in collaboration with the Borno State ministry of Environment
